Vice President-elect Mike Pence has no idea what the term “free market” means, or at least, that is what his most recent statement would suggest. Defending President-elect Trump’s $7 million deal with Carrier, Pence recently stated, “the free market has been sorting it out and America’s been losing.”

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Okay, maybe not exactly. They are using state coercion to force companies not to pay their CEOs more than 100 x the companies’ median employee. Businesses in Portland, OR, who pay such “too high” salaries to their CEOs will be hit by a 10% surcharge on their taxes. This, if policy-makers and other economic illiterates are to be believed, will make Portland more equal.

They probably think businesses will stay in Portland, and possibly even move to Portland, despite this new rule.